As Left fumes, Advani warms up to Karat

[1]

With reds and saffrons in complete disarray, the two hardliners, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat and senior BJP leader L.K. Advani, appear to be inching closer to each other. Even as Bengal comrades continue to fume at Mr Karat for holding the state’s “poor administration” responsible for the party’s rapid loss of ground in the state, Mr Advani thinks the Marxist boss is right.

On June 5, Mr Advani wrote in his blog: “If the Marxist citadel of Kolkata has collapsed, Mamata has served only as an instrument. The real achievement is of the Reds themselves. The ‘achievement’ is negative: ‘alienation’ from the people, as Prakash Karat has rightly commented.” It may be recalled that Mr Karat had blamed “poor administration in Bengal” for the party’s rout in the Lok Sabha polls.
This had infuriated Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and a host of Bengal comrades. However, Mr Advani’s blog supporting Mr Karat’s viewpoint has raised eyebrows in the CPI(M).
There is also resentment brewing in the party over Mr Karat’s subtle moves to join hands with any outfit which is opposed to the Congress. “We are again committing a mistake,” a central committee member said.
Mr Advani, in another article in his blog, also indicated that the Left has always been opposed to the Congress.
Stopping short of claiming that the Left was the natural ally of the BJP, he wrote: “In my long parliamentary career, the Left’s open alliance with the Congress has been a recent development.”
He goes on to write: “For long they have been part of the anti-Congress opposition and so have coordinated their activities with other Opposition parties, including Jana Sangh (which later became the BJP).”
Mr Advani then stated: “It is true that their hostility towards the BJP has often taken the shape of some kind of political untouchability. They would never come to our party office.” He added: “Even while discussing probable agreed Opposition candidates for the post of Rashtrapati (President), the venue would be some Opposition party office other than that of the BJP.”
That there might have always been an understanding with the Left parties in Parliament became somewhat evident with Mr Advani saying: “Coordination dialogue exclusively with us would be conducted either in the House or in the lobby.”
Mr Advani then recalled: “Time came when in 1989, V.P. Singh could become Prime Minister only when the BJP as well as the Left Front decided to support his government from outside. During Parliament sessions, every week, leaders of all supporting parties used to assemble for dinner at the Prime Minister’s residence and deliberate broadly about governmental and parliamentary issues.”
He stated: “During that period also an interesting incident occurred. A message came from chief minister Jyoti Basu to me: ‘Can Atalji and you have dinner with me at Vasant Vihar, New Delhi? Let’s discuss how the functioning of the V.P. Singh government can be improved.”

***

LK: Put party interest first
Age Correspondent
New Delhi

July 6: Mr L.K. Advani on Tuesday asked party workers to revive the BJP as a “party with a difference”. He asked the party cadre to put the interest of the organisation first before anything. He said, “Atal Behari Vajpayee used to say we were a party with a difference. We all should strive towards achieving this aim.” He also thanked the people for making Bharat Bandh successful.
“Through you (the media) I would like to thank the people of the country for making Bharat Bandh an unprecedented success. I would also like to thank the people of Delhi and our supporters here for this success,” Mr Advani said.